South of France beach

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From the early 1970s, Shirley Baker spent her summers in the South of France. Her greatest enjoyment involved taking photographs along its beaches and village streets. Several of these photographs were published in the new travel supplement magazines that emerged around this time, however many of them were unseen until May 2016, where they were shown at Shirley Baker On the Beach, at Photofusion.

This exhibition brought into dialogue photographs from the South of France and Blackpool. The locations may have been poles apart in some ways, but in other ways not: Shirley’s observations were to continue her lifelong explorations of everyday absurdity (people observed asleep or deeply self-absorbed), inter-personal contact (couples, adults with young children, or women and dogs were favourite combinations), the quiet drama of quotidian life.

The original prints of many of the images featured on this page can be purchased from the Shirley Baker estate. Please refer to the Contact Us page for further details.